Breaking the Fourth Wall
by be-nice-to-nerds
Summary: Alpha Force bond over a board game on a rainy day. Meanwhile, Li becomes convinced that they are really fictional characters and has an unlikely ally in proving so.


**This is an idea for a oneshot that I had a while ago, but it took me ages to write it all out. I hope you enjoy.**

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It was normal day in the Middleton Mansion. John Middleton had settled down in his office with a mug of coffee, the housekeeper was cleaning the kitchen – and Alpha Force was over.

Outside, the rain was pouring down in buckets. Even Alex, the hardiest of them all when it came to weather conditions, had agreed that it would be suicide to go outside today. So instead of going to the park like they had planned, Alpha Force were sitting inside, in comfortable armchairs, around a modified game of Risk.

"Hi anybody out there!" Li grinned. "I'm Li, and these are Alex, Hex, Paulo, and Amber. But you probably already know that."

Alex looked at her like she was crazy – the again, with the amount of sugar she had consumed, she probably was. "What on earth are you doing, Li?"

"I'm breaking the fourth wall!"

"Which is…" Paulo, this time.

"It's when a character in a TV show or book or cartoon or… anything starts talking directly to the audience." Hex explained. "Thus 'breaking the fourth wall'. But Li – one problem. Doesn't that imply that we're _fictional _characters?"

"Paulo, I'm attacking you. Two on two." said Li. She turned back to Hex and spoke passionately. "We _are_ fictional characters, Hex. In an alternate universe!"

Paulo rolled the dice and lost. "Damn it!" He moved two of his blue men off Brazil, leaving one brave soldier standing there, guarding an entire country.

"Come on Li! Do you really think anyone would want to write a book about us?" Amber couldn't stop the smile that spread on her face at the idea.

"Why not?" demanded Li. "I mean, we have adventures all the time."

"They're not…" Alex began, then stopped as he realized something. "Well, all right, they are. But people still wouldn't want to write a book about us."

"Why not?" Li repeated.

"They just…" Alex was rendered speechless.

Amber joined in again. "They wouldn't."

"Why not?" asked Li for the third time.

"Umm…" Amber was, for once, lost for words. "It's not possible. We're us, not anyone special. And we're not spies. All the kids books nowadays are about spies."

Hex nodded. "Tell me about it. All my brother reads now is Alex Rider, Young Bond, CHERUB. All that crap. And then he hogs the computer for hours reading fanfiction about them." He picked up a pair of dice, one red, one white and chucked one at Paulo. "I'm attacking you, Paulo."

Paulo groaned ("Why do you always pick on me?") and rolled the die – and promptly proceeded to get a one. He moved the last of his blue soldiers off Brazil and glared daggers at both Hex and Li as Hex pushed one of his green soldiers over from the west side of Africa.

Li held out her hand for Hex to high-five as she continued with her defense.

"Just cause we're not spies doesn't mean no one would write a book about us. I bet that we'd be even more interesting cause we're just, as Amber pointed out, ordinary teenagers who decided to make a difference."

Amber stuck to her point, feeble as it was, repeatedly. You had to give her points for not giving up. "It still wouldn't happen. It just wouldn't."

Li opened her mouth to answer but she was beaten to the punch by an unlikely ally.

"Technically, there's an infinite number of parallel universes. Therefore, it stands to reason that we're fictional characters in at least one of them. _Everyone _would be a fictional character in at least one of these parallel universes."

"But they wouldn't make a movie out of this." Pointed out Amber, more confident now that she was on the familiar ground of arguing with Hex. "We don't have enough action scenes." She stopped and uttered a line that was becoming far too familiar. "Paulo, I'm attacking you."

Paulo rolled one of the dice, and got a six. His face rose. He rolled another and got a one. Amber rolled both of hers, getting a five and a four. Amber moved her black figures from Mexico into Northern South America and Paulo's blue was removed from the board for the final time.

Paulo groaned and the other four cheered, happy that there was one less person to be annihilated. He glanced over at the board. Alex was in a comfortable lead, his yellow pieces on all of Australasia, Asia and parts of Europe and the middle east. Hex's green pieces had the rest of the middle east, all of Africa and Brazil. Amber possessed America from Northern south America North while Li's red pieces were scattered throughout the board, having dominance over Argentina, Iceland and most of Europe.

"Actually, I think we could make a pretty good movie" Alex thought out loud. "We have crazy villains, mysteries, a few action scenes, near death experiences – but the good guys always win. Not to mention character development and romance." He ducked as four pillows went flying in his direction. Sometimes it was good to be the observers. "Perfect movie material."

"And anyway" Hex reclaimed the argument. "Who said we had to be a movie. We could be a book. Hell, I bet that even Ben would want to read about our adventures."

Amber snorted. "Big deal. Your brother reads anything."

Paulo, Li and Alex all smiled, remembering when they had met Hex's brother. The thirteen-year old had removed his nose from a book very rarely. In fact, they could probably count on one hand the amount of time they had seen him do anything other than read.

"Anyway" Amber continued the debate "Even if we were fictional in a parallel earth, why would anyone want to read this? Nothing really exciting's happening – definitely not book material."

"Amber's got a point" Hex conceded. "Li, why did you try to break the fourth wall if no one in the other dimension would have been around to see us?"

"How do you know they weren't?" Li demanded.

"How do you know they were? Li, I'm attacking you."

Hex and Li each rolled a die. Hex lost and removed the attacking piece from the board. Now he only had one green piece on Brazil.

"I don't know if anyone was listening, but that's why I keep trying. Sooner or later, someone will answer."

"Right… so you basically stop at really weird moments and talk to the sky?" Amber was rightly skeptical.

"Yeah!"

"And… how exactly are you supposed to know if someone's watching?"

"Umm… I didn't think of that?"

Amber sighed and picked up four dice, tossing two to Hex. "I'm attacking you, Hex."

"What! We've gotten rid of Paulo, so know you're ganging up on me?"

All in all, it was a typical day with Alpha Force.

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I hope you liked it, feedback is appreciated etc.

**The game of Risk they're playing is a modified version and the only type I know how to play, so if the rules don't appear to be 100% correct it's because they're playing a different game.**

**I think that's it, so BNTN is signing out.**


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